A colleague at work attracted my attention to this article the other day, after our discussion on the current project went off on a tangent, as these always seem to do.
http://nautil.us/issue/21/information/the-quantum-mechanics-of-fate-rp
Being a science-fiction writer, my first thought of course, was how to weave this notion about retrocausality into a story. I’m sure an idea will come at the most unexpected moment, and likely not in terms of time travel fiction, a genre I always find hard to enjoy – with a few exceptions. I guess part of my not being a fan of time travel fiction stems from seeing the 1960 movie The Time Machine, based on H.G. Wells’ novel of the same name, when I was quite young, certainly younger than ten and thus highly impressionable. The Morlocks gave me nightmares for a long time, and even though I’ve never seen it since, I can still remember some of the scenes with frightening clarity. As I grew older, my memories of the story shifted from the horror of the Morlocks to the more existential horror of human civilization essentially destroying itself over and over, which is probably why I’m not fond of post-apocalyptic or dystopian fiction either.
You have to admit, the notion that both the future and the past can influence the present is interesting, if mind-bending. It’s almost as if my future as a best-selling author is influencing my ability to write today. Just kidding. Or am I?
And on that note, back to The Path of Duty on this bone-chilling Sunday. Act IV is turning out to be very dense with details, but at this rate, the first draft will be done before Old Man Winter leaves us. You’ll have noticed that I’ve posted a picture of the cover already. It’s by the same artist as the cover for Death Comes but Once. I’ll likely post the usual back of the book blurb in the coming weeks. It’s fermenting in the back of my brain.